The Spectator and the Muses

Imagination in Motion

This speech is meant to be a presentation of myself, which hopefully will allow you to get to know me better. Doing such thing is never an easy task for oneself, since one’s own perception will always be very different from the rest of the world’s point of view about you.

I think that the only true effective way of letting ourselves known is through our actions and passions, because they reflect our beliefs and our essence. They define us beyond words in the clearest manner.

This is why I chose to talk about my greatest passion: cinema, films, movies, motion pictures, filmmaking, “the industry of fantasies and dreams”… You can call it with any of its many names. For me, it means one thing only—life. The feeling I get when involving myself in the movie magic is something mysterious that I can’t explain, but anyone who has got a passion would recognize easily.

I believe sometimes that such a thing happens to me because cinema is the pinnacle of arts, by mixing all the magnificent seven arts into one. And art is nothing but human realization: it’s not about natural survival; it’s not always about an exercise of reason; art is about the soul bonding with the body and mind.

I decided long ago that I would devote myself to all the creative possibilities of the “show business,” meaning filmmaking, television, radio, and even internet nowadays, in order to set my imagination in motion. Although it’s common to relate these activities to fame and money, and relate these both to excess, and other unpleasant things, the only difference with the “real world” is appearing in the front page of a tabloid; tragedy could always happen. I’m confident that fame and wealth are not the ultimate purpose of “show business”, in spite of them being the goal of many of its participants. There’s got to be more about it.

All the cameras and lights, the razzle-dazzling visual effects, the monumental music or the hit songs, the beautiful actresses or acting hunks with or without talent, the daunting stories of heroes and villains or corny tales of love and romance; everything, every single one of these things is intended for one mission: the creation of new worlds. Not only creating fantastic worlds in galaxies far, far away; the main goal is to create a new world of our own, by remembering the past and proposing improvements that wake a new hope for the future.

That’s the most attractive part for me: being able to change the present. I’ve always wanted to help the world. I thrive to do it every time possible even in the slightest way. That’s why I have always been keen to ecology, and why I innocently wanted to work in politics. But it all changed with films. First, there was the awe-strike of watching “Jurassic Park” at age six, nesting my fascination for movies. Then, six years later, yet another Spielberg film would shock me: “Artificial Intelligence”, which changed my way of watching movies completely and forever, and enrolled me into filmmaking. The shock was so intense and special, that to this day I haven’t had the will to watch the movie again, even when I own the DVD. I don’t want to miss or replace the original emotion. Finally, the classic “The Godfather” and the hip “Fight Club” would influence me to twist and reshape my views of life. And so on, movies keep on becoming somehow parts of me. Literally, I’ve become what movies and TV have shown me.

This influence, this power, is the true movie magic, and is what I look forward to: to change the world for someone like cinema did for me, even if it’s just one person among millions—because one is a good head-start. One is all you really need for a new, and hopefully better world for tomorrow starting today.